Iran is doing an extreme version of precisely that, where the whitelist is a null set.
Tor also has a well-established way of fighting blacklists. Normal relays are all listed on a public network, but there is also an opt-in program which exists for Tor relays: a Tor relay can choose to be "hidden" in a certain sense. A "hidden" relay node accepts only entrance connections, and these are advertised more quietly by the Tor Project folks, who don't reveal too many too fast. It is therefore the case that blacklists can be circumvented by asking Tor for a couple of hidden entrance nodes and configuring yourself appropriately.
The goal of obfuscation is to buy a little more time during which people can use encryption again, by making the encryption look like normal traffic. (But I have no further knowledge of the particulars, so take what I have said with a grain of salt.)
Tor also has a well-established way of fighting blacklists. Normal relays are all listed on a public network, but there is also an opt-in program which exists for Tor relays: a Tor relay can choose to be "hidden" in a certain sense. A "hidden" relay node accepts only entrance connections, and these are advertised more quietly by the Tor Project folks, who don't reveal too many too fast. It is therefore the case that blacklists can be circumvented by asking Tor for a couple of hidden entrance nodes and configuring yourself appropriately.
The goal of obfuscation is to buy a little more time during which people can use encryption again, by making the encryption look like normal traffic. (But I have no further knowledge of the particulars, so take what I have said with a grain of salt.)